Page 99 of Castian

Malcolm, the werewolf, gave her a bright grin. “He was searching for the official library at the council for instant death curses.” He laughed. “While still on the banned list.”

Alek moved away from the circle; his eyes eerily focused on Lanias. “He might have been exonerated for his crimes, but the record he built as the mad warlock, wouldn’t allow him anywhere near the council library.”

Castian pouted, shooting her a pitiful, “I was trying to get your wedding gift together, but they stopped me.” He glared at Raijin, “I didn’t get in your way.”

Raijin ignored his complaining, focusing on Sabina. He gently brushed a hand over her shirt, and skirt offering her a loving smile. “Are you okay, it didn’t make you nauseous?”

She laid a hand over his, and smiled up at him. “No, just a bit dizzy.”

Raijin shot Lanias a displeased look, who shrugged when she saw it. “I told you my magic is powerful; you just didn’t believe me.”

Then she shot him an annoyed look. “We can talk about this later, how about dealing with elves in the room.”

Raijin turned away from her to watch the elves, who were being approached by Tiller.

ELVES?!

OYE

Castian was now seated on her bed and Oye had given up on her hopes of sleep. She was now seated next to him, wondering what the doctors and nurses were doing. Then again, having any more people in the room probably wouldn’t be a good thing.

“As you are aware, Elves are not welcomed in the Veil or the Human realm,” Tiller said from where he stood in the center of the room. While the others had taken stances near the walls. Sabina and Lanias were behind her bed at the end.

Oye couldn’t help being impressed at the level of blood lust that was filling the room, and was surprised the Elves weren’t twitching at all.. She let rivers of iron leak into her hand where it formed into a blade.

“We are aware of the laws our Queen signed.” The one who’d drawn his hood down answered. His eyes were a curious green that were distracting. “But that can be discussed at length at a later time. Right now, there are far more important things to talk about. He turned his attention to Oye, who tensed. “One of you has been playing guardian to elven children, and we received the signs that one of these children was endangered.”

“Interesting that that’s a concern for you now,” Oye said, her eyes narrowed on him. “He, and his brothers have been in plenty of scrapes before, and you never showed up.”

He bowed his head acknowledging her words. “We are a race who keeps to themselves. It is very rare for our young to be raised outside of our world, and because of this we had little experience in managing their health and the barrier around the orphanage made it harder.”

“Oh, so you’re here now, why?” Oye demanded, ignoring the warning look Tiller shot her. “I found them in a basket treated like animals. Isn’t it a bit late to show care?”

He flinched, glancing at the other person who’d yet to pull down his hood. “Ulian, it is difficult to do this without explaining fully.”

The male gave a short nod, and removed his hood exposing hair the color of moonlight. It looked similar to Aleks, but where Aleks was more platinum this man’s hair glowed without light. His green eyes were soft, he placed his left hand on his right shoulder and gave a short bow.

“I am Ulian, third prince to the Elven kingdom and the boys you’ve raised were a blessing to our people that we thought we’d lost many years ago. They are the last children born to our royals’ lineage.”

“If that’s true, shouldn’t you have come running to retrieve them the minute you learned they were alive,” Sabina demanded. “I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving my child alone in an entirely different realm.”

His expression didn’t change, but Oye sensed he was just as upset as Sabina, “We first had to move with caution to figure out how the kidnappers were able to cross into our world in the first place and after that, when we were finally able to come to this world we had to remain unknown as we hunted for them and then…” He trailed off with a sigh.

“What?” Lanias pushed. “Did you realize they were in the hands of a witch and Mama D.”

He shot her an annoyed look. “Like Jhoran said, we are grateful, because Elven children cannot travel through the gate till they reach majority.”

Hearing this caused Oye to relax a bit. “So, why didn’t you come to get them?”

“Our people still do not know that Their Majesties’ sons are no longer in the Elven kingdom. It would draw unwanted attention from the other kingdoms in our world.”

“So, you’re saying we’ve been hiding the heirs to the elven throne,” Tiller concluded, before he smirked. “And you weren’t exactly eager to let us know that that’s what they were.”

“What?” Lanias loudly exclaimed, staring at Oye in a way that made her want to hit her.

“What?” Oye snapped, as she realized everyone was staring at her. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“Because, darling, you raising princes is a bit, um, unexpected.” Castian knowingly side eyed the blade she was clutching.

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